One of the frustrations of the G1 was its lack of an editing interface for Google Docs. A lot of people had figured that the T-Mobile G1 was “with Google” and would contain good integration with Google Docs. Until recently, that was not the case.

Poor support of Google Docs editing ended with the release of GDocs from WildArts. GDocs is a very respectable entry as an editor for Google Docs text documents. The current version is a beta, and doesn’t support the creation or editing of presentations, spreadsheets, and forms. However, it is very good at what it does in its present form: Create and edit text documents in your Google Docs account.

There are a number of features missing in the Android app. In fact, it is easier to list what features are supported in Android than to list the ones that still haven’t been implemented: GDocs allows you to edit existing text or to type new text. Things like bold, italics, underlining, numbered lists, or bulleted lists aren’t supported. If you think of GDocs as a notepad app that allows basic editing of existing text docs, the app is fascinating and useful.

GDocs allows you view only access to the documents on the server. You must download the document to your Android based phone to perform any edits. In common usage, the sync function seems reliable and robust, but there is an option to force synchronization if you need to quickly update a remote document. Documents that haven’t been downloaded to the handset are indicated by a blue bar next to the title. Documents that exist both on the server and on the local handset have a green bar.

GDocs allows for some potentially useful activities, like offering the ability to view, but not edit, spreadsheets and to view PDF files stored in your Google Docs account. You can view all of the documents that have been starred in your account, or only view documents that exist on the local handset and the server.

In short, GDocs is a very welcome addition that has started to offer some editing support of Google Docs for Android. As a free beta, I am very pleased with the new functionality and am really looking forward to seeing this app mature.

Christopher Earle has been working as a freelance writer since 1987. He currently lives in the Denver, Colorado area with his wife, son, and their two cats. He has been a fan of open source software for many years.

Mine will not sync with Gdocs I thought this would be good, but its jus ok..although there is another app on the market that actually syncs I just thought this one would have better features…(disappointed) but hey keep working on it!

http://lightthemind.wordpress.com Xuhua

There needs to be an app with TEXT edit capability for ipod touch. It’s unbelievable that they don’t have that yet. Why would you need to just view your documents, when that isn’t exactly what Google Docs was meant for?

Not to mention, I still find it rather pathetic that the internet browsers on smartphones didn’t allow text edit capability to begin with. WordPress seems to have figured this problem out quite well.

http://Website Xuhua

Actually I should add: There should be a FREE app. All the ones that seem to work with what I’m looking for, you have to pay for, when this is available as a free beta.

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